So in order to defend your faith from attack, you decide the best course of action would be to kill innocent civilians, virtually guaranteeing a negative reaction and increased suspicion directed towards your faith?

When this guy said he didn't understand Americans, he really wasn't joking.

Nana's Vibrator:That settles it. If Islam didn't exist, these guys would be law abiding angels.

You're removing a gigantic variable from the equation of world history and pretending there's no way it would have made a difference.

These guys might not have even been BORN if Islam didn't exist. The removal of Islam from history could create a major paradox, destroying life as we know it. If we were lucky, the damage would only be limited to this solar system.

You see, just because more terrorist attacks are committed by Muslims than Christians, that magically makes all Muslims terrorists regardless of all the good they do like thwarting future terror attacks in Canada.

give me doughnuts:MaliFinn: give me doughnuts: No, it means you are a freaking moran who seemingly thinks there are more American males between 18-24 than there are Muslims on the planet.Your mother must be very ashamed.

No, what I'm saying is if you look at crime in the US - hate crime, violent crime, terrorism, etc. - you won't find muslims dominating the brackets, you will find 18-24 males. This is a pretty strong indicator that 18-24 males are violent idiots.

And you sound awfully defensive, I wish you well in your battle with adolescence.

give me doughnuts:MaliFinn: It wasn't Islam, Islam is an excuse. It was from a larger, more consistently destructive demographic:

Age 18-24 American males

You're not really good at counting, are you?

Oh, was the older idiot slightly above age 24? Whatever. You've avoided the point while being technically correct on the internet. This means you are a special, intelligent person who is completely unlike everyone else on the internet. Your mother must be very proud.

I_Am_Weasel:mamoru: Yeah, but based on this summary of a few sources (specifically cites NPR and the WSJ), the brother basically was to mainstream Islam what Westboro Baptist is to mainstream Christianity. He stood up during a sermon and loudly complained to his imam's suggestion that it was okay celebrate American holidays. He got pissy in a halal meat shop because they were advertising Thanksgiving turkeys.

Just because Islam turned out to be the channel for these idiots' insanity, that doesn't mean all Muslims are insane* and are all coming to kill you. Just sayin', keep some perspective.

*or at least any more insane than your average random member of any other mainstream religion

Basically most people who are a new convert to something, be it religion, vegetarianism, exercise regime. They go full bore into it as if it's the most wondrous thing since sliced deities. They want to make sure you know about it, and get all offended if you're not as excited about their epiphany as they are.

over_and_done:Diogenes: miss diminutive: So in order to defend your faith from attack, you decide the best course of action would be to kill innocent civilians, virtually guaranteeing a negative reaction and increased suspicion directed towards your faith?

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When this guy said he didn't understand Americans, he really wasn't joking.

Put in those terms, yeah, it's silly.

But as an overall strategy used by Al Qaeda, it's worked to a degree. Sure, you and I can see it's a form of post hoc ergo propter hoc. But there are many American and Westerners, as well as many Muslims, that believe we are at war with Islam.

Sadly, the people who think that "we are at war with Islam" are too ignorant to understand your fancy book-learnin' words. In fact, just by typing them, you're automatically the enemy.

Something I find particularly hilarious is when they cite Chamberlane, Churchill, etc., and make pronouncements about "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it" - and then propose another round of the Crusades.Yeah, moron - those who forget history ARE doomed to repeat it.

Dr Dreidel:Fast Thick Pants: Memo to nuke-em-all Muslim bashers: your new stereotype is a friendly, well-dressed, athletic young white man with an American accent and a slightly larger-than-average nose. There are a lot of 'em out there, so get busy. Please don't shoot any Sikhs this time.

Cut out "athletic", and that's me. (I'm broad. And fat.)

// also browner than most// European/Jewish by ancestry, agnostic by choice

Listen. I'm at work. I don't have time to go to Banana Republic to display my rage and throw things. Besides, if I miss people and damage the clothes, I'll have to pay for them. And I refuse to pay their prices. I'm just going to have to hate someone else./Stupid janitors

FTA: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, wounded and held in a Boston hospital, said his brother wanted to defend Islam from attack, according to the source.

Maybe someone should tell them that most Americans never had a problem with Islam, up to the point they started coming to the U.S. and attacking our citizens. Even when they were attacking our military outside our country's borders, most Americans didn't have too much of a problem with Islam.

Want to defend and improve Islam... STOP ATTACKING AMERICAN CIVILIANS!

Any religion which believes it is the One True Way (tm) is going to have conflict with another religion that believes it is the One True Way (tm). Especially so when those religions are proselytizing religions.

Nothing new here.

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." -- Seneca

Fast Thick Pants:Memo to nuke-em-all Muslim bashers: your new stereotype is a friendly, well-dressed, athletic young white man with an American accent and a slightly larger-than-average nose. There are a lot of 'em out there, so get busy. Please don't shoot any Sikhs this time.

But those guys have scary little knives on their belts. They must be turrists!!

Memo to nuke-em-all Muslim bashers: your new stereotype is a friendly, well-dressed, athletic young white man with an American accent and a slightly larger-than-average nose. There are a lot of 'em out there, so get busy. Please don't shoot any Sikhs this time.

brandent:nekom: mamoru: Yeah, but based on this summary of a few sources (specifically cites NPR and the WSJ), the brother basically was to mainstream Islam what Westboro Baptist is to mainstream Christianity. He stood up during a sermon and loudly complained to his imam's suggestion that it was okay celebrate American holidays. He got pissy in a halal meat shop because they were advertising Thanksgiving turkeys.

Just because Islam turned out to be the channel for these idiots' insanity, that doesn't mean all Muslims are insane* and are all coming to kill you. Just sayin', keep some perspective.

*or at least any more insane than your average random member of any other mainstream religion

Good points. I think what we have here is a typical "us vs. them" situation. The "us" and "them" could be anything, really. Religion, politics, skin tone, whatever petty difference they can find. Then it just gets reinforced in some circles. Then it festers in the mind. It becomes an obsession. Every little thing you see in the news is "GRRRRRRRRRRR farking THEM!!!!! GAH! HATE HATE HATE!!! They are NOT US!!! RABBLE!!!" No different than a tea party rally, an ALF meeting, or any other group that perceives everyone else as "the enemy".

The difference between radical violent Christians and radical violent Islamists is simple. If a person reads the New Testament and adheres strictly to the teachings of Jesus then they would soon come to the conclusion that they are pacifist and probably socialist and defenders of tolerance, love, and inclusion. If a person reads the teachings of Mohammed and follows them strictly then they would soon come to the conclusion that it is a doctrine of violence and intolerance.

I'm going to go out on a limb an guess you aren't Fluent in writtern Arabic, which tells me you have never read the Koran. I'm also going to guess that your in-depth study of Islam involves watching TV and movies and listening to the opinions of right-wing columnists, radio show hosts and preachers. In fact I'm going to double down and guess you've only the slightest passing familiarity with the more-quoted bits of the Bible and are Christian by default, and spend about as much time learning about your relgion on a weekly basis as you devote to nail care.

Magorn:Let me just say this as vaguely as possible. If what I hear from someone who claims to know the wife of the older brother is true, then this whole hyper-religious thing with him is a VERY recent development and he was perfectly fine being a decadent American before that. While Islam was the window dressing for this, it wasn;t the REAL motivation, which, I supect had to do with the older brother suddenly having no farking clue what his life was about after he realized his Olympic dreams were never going to come true.

Quoting this because it's a thing that should be quoted. Something shiatty happened in this guy's life that flipped the switch from good to ear-twitchingly bazoo. Allah was a front-seat passenger on the road to crazy, he picked the radio station but he wasn't driving.

bluefox3681:But before we caught them, I remember a salon.com article just hoping that is wasn't muslims.And then after we caught them, I remember msnbc doing their best to not mention Islam and comparing these guys to the columbine shooters.

Why all the covering for Islam? Yes, all terrorists are not muslim and all muslims are not terrorists. However, let's stop going out of our way to make excuses for any extreme ideology.

Because only Christians, whites and gun owners can be denigrated by the media. It's in their handbook.

mamoru:Yeah, but based on this summary of a few sources (specifically cites NPR and the WSJ), the brother basically was to mainstream Islam what Westboro Baptist is to mainstream Christianity. He stood up during a sermon and loudly complained to his imam's suggestion that it was okay celebrate American holidays. He got pissy in a halal meat shop because they were advertising Thanksgiving turkeys.

Just because Islam turned out to be the channel for these idiots' insanity, that doesn't mean all Muslims are insane* and are all coming to kill you. Just sayin', keep some perspective.

*or at least any more insane than your average random member of any other mainstream religion

You are unfit for fark. Don't think, just jerk your knees, is the way to go here.

mamoru:Yeah, but based on this summary of a few sources (specifically cites NPR and the WSJ), the brother basically was to mainstream Islam what Westboro Baptist is to mainstream Christianity. He stood up during a sermon and loudly complained to his imam's suggestion that it was okay celebrate American holidays. He got pissy in a halal meat shop because they were advertising Thanksgiving turkeys.

Just because Islam turned out to be the channel for these idiots' insanity, that doesn't mean all Muslims are insane* and are all coming to kill you. Just sayin', keep some perspective.

*or at least any more insane than your average random member of any other mainstream religion

Basically most people who are a new convert to something, be it religion, vegetarianism, exercise regime. They go full bore into it as if it's the most wondrous thing since sliced deities. They want to make sure you know about it, and get all offended if you're not as excited about their epiphany as they are.